If you watch the video, I think it's fairly obvious that the "apathetic crowd" were most likely accomplices of the thief. They were there to try to distract the security guard and provide cover/denials for the thug actually cutting the lock.

Theres one vid out there .. where the perp opens the access panel in the light pole,
that the bike is locked onto,
hooks up a power-tool to the wires to the light, and then cuts the lock,
and is never questioned..

maybe the video camera has people thinking 'they're making a movie,
I better not get in the camera shot'.

Respect to the "almost" victim. He stood there in the trenches and tried to address every threat head on without himself being guilty in his response. Still - nothing. I am sure as this video circulates, the security guards on duty will be reviewed as this goes up the channels in that department. Another good thing came out of this too - the victim will definitely get a better lock.

Theres one vid out there .. where the perp opens the access panel in the light pole,
that the bike is locked onto,
hooks up a power-tool to the wires to the light, and then cuts the lock,
and is never questioned..

maybe the video camera has people thinking 'they're making a movie,
I better not get in the camera shot'.

Of course, that one is a set up (if it is the one I'm thinking of, from NYC) -- guy is 'stealing' his own bike to make a point.

At first I thought this one might be the same, but wow. 'course, not sure why the guy didn't dial the cops as soon as he saw it, as he went out. Might have had a cop there before it ended that way.

If you watch the video, I think it's fairly obvious that the "apathetic crowd" were most likely accomplices of the thief. They were there to try to distract the security guard and provide cover/denials for the thug actually cutting the lock.

Yah I agree, definitely were in on it.

Quote:

I like how the security guard says it should have been locked to the rack...that would have helped.

hahaha in know eh. What does it being locked to the rack or not have anything to do with the fact the guy cut his lock and was going to steal his bike.

The guy is convinced that he is being stalked by various gangs in the area. I think he's a nutter.

HOLY SH**! Did I just give him respect? I've logged onto his conspiracy theory videos. Wow. A nutter? That's putting it mildly. There's more to this than what you see, and there's a reason why his camera was running so early, well before he reached the door.

No doubt about the character of the thugs outside. But that predictable situation was anticipated and sought out... and not just for catching bike thieves. This guy is out there. The whole thing is. Take 'em all off the streets.

Theres one vid out there .. where the perp opens the access panel in the light pole,
that the bike is locked onto,
hooks up a power-tool to the wires to the light, and then cuts the lock,
and is never questioned..

That particular video is a series of staged "I'm stealing my own bike, watch how nobody stops me" video. The setups are a little obvious (who uses light-weight chain to lock a bike in New York?), and there's every possibility that selective editing has gotten rid of occasions where he was stopped

Still, crowd behaviour is always a little surprising, but well known to psychologists. If a single person saw a bike being stolen, they'd be a lot more likely to do something than the same person seeing the same crime while surrounded by 100 people. Everyone wants someone else to act, and will generally only act if there is no one else.

One of the TV networks has been running a "news" show series about human behavior in a variety of staged ethical situations. By accident I caught parts of a couple of these shows and one was a staged bike theft. Basically if the "thief" was a white male every one ignored him and assumed he was taking his own bike. Even when passersby talked to him and he told them it was not his bike, he was just taking it, they walked on with little or no comment. The race of the observers did not matter, they mostly reacted the same. If the "thief" was a black male he was much more likely to be accosted and in one case the passerby acted like he was about to take physical action. The race of the observers did not matter, they mostly reacted the same. If the "thief" was an attractive white woman, everyone helped her steal the bike!

Then I heard a story on NPR by a Canadian woman who'd had her bike stolen, the dearly loved MTB she had ridden through college. A week or two later she spotted her bike chained to a lamppost just a few blocks from her home. She staked it out in her car to confront the thief. People from the neighborhood eventually noticed her, asked about her business, began bringing her refreshments, and finally helped her cut the chain and recover the bike. Of course she had not ridden it more than a few blocks before she realized that it really was not her bike, there were just too many little things that were not the same. So eventually she put a note on the post explaining what had happened and was able to return the bike to its rightful owner. She never did get her bike back.

The moral is clear though, if you want to steal bikes, hire women as thieves!